The foundation of any wellness program must revolve around people learning how to have food support health instead of destroy it, reducing excess amounts of fat on the body and supporting any bio-chemical deficiencies with effective nutrition. Everything else is just a band-aid.

There is no question that being at your ideal weight significantly lowers your risk for heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, and other chronic illnesses. Fat around the belly area, known as visceral or intra-abdominal fat, is particularly linked to elevated levels of cholesterol, insulin, triglycerides and blood pressure; all markers for the development of disease conditions.

If the idea of a liquid cleanse or more extreme plan for detoxifying has you avoiding the whole idea, know that there are many ways to promote cleansing and give your body a rest from overindulging in foods that may be difficult to digest or contain toxins you don’t need. To whatever degree you focus on whole, natural, unprocessed foods, you are doing something good for yourself.

This is a tool I use at the beginning of the Health Counseling process, in order to help people focus on the areas of their lives which could most benefit from some loving attention and effort. Hope you find it helpful in your journey towards improved health.

Holistic Review of All Aspects of a Well-Balanced Life

Food, and how you choose to eat, is very much linked to your other habits, practices, and overall life circumstances. The degree to which you feel fulfilled in all areas will partially determine how well you are able to adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Similarly, when you nourish yourself with good food, you will find you have a better ability to get your needs met in all other areas and create the life you most desire.

Green vegetables are the foods most missing in our diets. Learning to cook and eat greens is essential to creating health. When you nourish yourself with dark, leafy greens you will automatically crowd out some of the foods that aren’t as healthy. Greens help build your internal rain forest and strengthen the blood and respiratory systems. Green is associated with spring, the time of renewal, refreshment and vital energy. In Asian medicine, green is related to the liver, emotional stability and creativity.

Nutritionally, greens are very high in calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E and K. They are full of fiber, folic acid, chlorophyll and many other micronutrients and phyto-chemicals.

Of all the things I work with clients on, the process of learning to relax more, particularly focusing on improving breathing, can have the biggest impact with the least amount of relative effort. And people that use the breathing exercise recommended below tend to really love it and feel the difference right away.

When we’re in a more relaxed state, the eating process serves us better because:

Many people ask me about cleansing programs and whether they could be helpful for them. In the same way it makes sense to clear out old junk before starting a renovation, a cleanse can be a means of helping the body to release toxic weight as you embark upon a new healthier lifestyle and approach to food. A cleanse can be a means of “jump-starting” the whole process. It is recommended that you work with a holistic health expert before starting any kind of cleanse.

I love to hear that people are thinking about whole grains and want to know how to use them. In my experience, adding these foods to a diet, particularly when they are replacing any kind of refined grain product, can have a significantly positive effect on energy, mood, and one’s ability to maintain a healthy weight. Grains also lend themselves well to cooking in batches and providing multiple meals. Furthermore, they are a great bargain relative to their nutritional value, especially if you purchase them in bulk.

Dr. Al Sears, the creator of this program, promises his approach will yield more strength and greater fitness in less time. Sears believes that after a few weeks of a “cardio” routine, you stop making progress and hit a “plateau” while PACE helps you break through those dead spots and keeps you moving forward. Within just a few months of PACE, Sears claims, you’ll be able to pump more blood and deliver more oxygen to your muscles – raising your energy levels like never before.

Are you done with dieting and ready for a different approach? If you have tried various diet plans and found that they either didn’t work for you, or only had a temporary effect, it is time to learn about conscious eating and how you can learn to love delicious whole foods. It really is possible to feel nourished and fulfilled by what you eat, improve your levels of wellness overall, and achieve your ideal body weight. Based on my work as a Health Counselor supporting people with this process of lifestyle change, I’m conducting a free discussion on the key aspects of embarking on a journey that will change your relationship to food. During this talk, we’ll discuss how one gets started with this process, and provide an overview of what’s required to make this kind of transition. Specifically, I will:

Beans are a rich source of protein, fiber, minerals including iron, potassium, and magnesium, and vitamins like folate. They also contain phytochemicals like flavonoids, anti-oxidants that help the body avoid oxygen-related damage. Their health benefits include blood-sugar maintenance, cancer-prevention, and promoting heart health. Beans can also play an important role in weight management, as they provide lots of satisfying “bulk” without a lot of calories.

Lentils are a particularly good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. They are also provide special benefits in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. They also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein-all with virtually no fat.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Beth. When I initially signed up to work with her my only issue (so I thought) was weight control. Little did I know that I would be diving in deeper than the weight issue and really begin to work on the whole me instead of just one area. Beth’s approach to weight control is much different than any I’ve seen. Instead of giving you a long list of what NOT to eat, she begins slowly by adding one healthy food group TO EAT at a time. She comes to our meeting with a new “goodie” each week and recipes for that food group. She has given me shopping tips as well as tips for creating harmony in my busy life.

Beans are a rich source of protein, fiber, minerals including iron, potassium, and magnesium, and vitamins like folate. They also contain phytochemicals like flavonoids, anti-oxidants that help the body avoid oxygen-related damage. Their health benefits include blood-sugar maintenance, cancer-prevention, and promoting heart health. Beans can also play an important role in weight management, as they provide lots of satisfying “bulk” without a lot of calories.

In all honesty I find that most words do not do justice to the magic Beth works. Her entire approach from the start was to look at me first as an individual and guide me to guide myself! Beth is equipped with so much knowledge and an ability to listen without an ounce of judgment involved. Her approach to counseling me was always clear and on target. After 43 years of dieting, I can honestly say I will never use that word again when talking about myself. Working with Beth from the start was about learning how to make healthier choices and prepare healthier foods. With her guidance, I soon realized that while this was clearly important, it wouldn’t work alone. With that, I had to be ready to look deeper into myself and evaluate what was going on. I love that in the beginning she simply said, “listen to your body!” Sounds easy enough, but when you really do it, WOW, it does speak, and the entire process of trying different combinations of foods and evaluating how they made me feel was incredible. I always left our sessions feeling ready to embark on a new task related to creating a healthier me by learning to nurture myself.